Episode summary introduction:

TC & Maddog share what they believe is the profound significance of creating and cherishing memories, asserting that life’s ultimate purpose transcends material accumulation and resides in the connections we forge and the moments we share with our loved ones. 

We delve into the idea that no individual should traverse life in solitude, emphasizing the shared experiences that enrich our existence. The discussion underscores that while life presents myriad opportunities for memorable journeys, the most poignant reflections often arise as we contemplate our legacy in later years. We contend that the essence of life lies not in the tangible possessions we acquire, but in the indelible memories crafted alongside those who matter most to us. 

Ultimately, we invite our listeners to engage in the conscious act of memory-making, for it is through these shared experiences that we cultivate a lasting impact on ourselves and those we hold dear.

 Topics discussed in this episode:

The discussion explores the profound importance of memory-making in our lives, emphasizing that the essence of our existence is not defined by material possessions or wealth, but rather by the cherished moments we create with those we love. The speakers articulate that as we navigate the various stages of life, the need for connection and shared experiences becomes increasingly vital. They invite listeners to reflect on their own lives and consider how they might cultivate meaningful memories, suggesting that these interactions are the cornerstone of our legacy. Through storytelling, they illustrate that memories can arise spontaneously, often from the simplest of moments, and encourage listeners to embrace the opportunities life presents for creating lasting impressions that contribute to their overall happiness and fulfillment. 

In a more detailed exploration, the speakers delve into the psychological benefits associated with positive memory creation. They posit that engaging in activities that foster connection and joy not only enriches our lives, but also enhances our mental well-being. The conversation transitions into practical advice on how to prioritize memory-making amidst the busyness of daily life. The speakers assert that it is crucial to be present in the moment and advocate for spontaneity over meticulous planning, suggesting that the most memorable experiences often arise from unanticipated adventures. They conclude this segment by advocating for a shift in perspective, encouraging listeners to view memory-making as a cost-free endeavor that can be pursued in various forms, reinforcing the notion that the quality of our lives is ultimately measured by our relationships and the memories we forge together.

Finally, the discussion culminates in a contemplative reflection on legacy, prompting listeners to consider the impact of their memories on future generations. The speakers underscore that memories serve as a narrative of our lives, and they hold the power to shape our identity and relationships. They articulate the responsibility we bear to create positive memories not only for ourselves but also for those who will remember us after we are gone. This final segment serves as a poignant reminder that the act of making memories is not merely a personal endeavor but a communal one, fostering bonds that transcend time and space. Ultimately, the speakers encourage their audience to embrace the fleeting nature of life and to seize every moment as an opportunity to create memories that will resonate long after they have passed.

Walkabout takeaways:

• In our lives, making memories with loved ones is paramount, transcending material possessions.
• Life's ultimate journey involves reflecting on our legacy and the memories we create.
• We must prioritize positive experiences, as these contribute significantly to our overall happiness.
• Memories serve as a profound connection to our identity and relationships, shaping who we are.
• Creating memories does not necessitate financial expenditure; meaningful experiences can be free.
• Memories are the lasting imprints of our existence, shaping our narrative and connections.

More about E-Walkabout:

To learn more about Electronic Walkabout visit us at   www.ewalkabout.ca.

If you want to read more “Thoughts of the Day” check out TC’s Book at Amazon:

“St. Mike's Fortunes” https://a.co/d/j5dGhBK 

A special thanks to Steven Kelly, our technical advisor, who keeps trying to teach these old dogs new tricks when it comes to sounds and recording!!

“Remember to take advantage of the moment before the moment takes advantage of you!”

Electronic Walkabout. No one should have to walk through life alone. We share the good times, the bad times, and the best times.

Everyone needs a little direction now and again. And TC and Mad Dog are here to show you the way. A podcast where we talk about the important things in life. Come journey with us.

The electronic Walkabout Maddog. Here we are again, getting ready to embark on another e Walkabout journey. Life gives us endless opportunities for these journeys.

But the most important, important will be our last. That last journey occurs later in life when we begin to reflect on life and our legacy.

I know that people question their purpose on this big blue planet, and we are here to tell them what their purpose is today. It's not about money. It's not about having the most toys. It's about making as many memories as we can with the people who care the most to us.

Sounds simple, right?

Sure. But no.

So this is what we're gonna get into. But first, as always, a thought for the day. Taking the bull by the horn sounds a little dangerous, but is the best way to deal with things head on.

If you don't, chances are the result is a head on collision.

I like it. Yep. Teaches you bravery when you have the wherewithal to face things head on.

Being a. I'll say, a gentleman from Calgary, how many stampedes did you take in while you were there?

Well over 30.

Yeah. And you. Did you actually go and watch some of the rodeo events?

Yes. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

It, you know, the, the fairgrounds are, you know, they get really annoying because you've got every tough 14 year old walking around bumping into people. But the, the agriculture behind the stampede and just, you know, a lot of those learnings and I. Yeah, no, the fair or the, the rodeo itself is.

You got to experience that in person.

Yeah, it's. It's one of those things you, you probably need to do a couple, I would think.

Yeah. If you get down by the gates for the, the bull riding, you get a real good understanding of how big those animals are and it's scary.

And I wonder if those cowboys have psych evaluations before they hop on that.

Absolutely not. Because they wouldn't be on there if they did.

Making a memory. Easy, hard. What, what are your thoughts on that?

I think making a memory is very easy. Whether it's good, bad, or indifferent is the question. But.

Okay, let's talk about it in a positive sense.

So it's funny, when I was kind of putting this plan together, I was thinking about you and your family and Wondering what kind of memories that you kind of, I'll say, make a habit of creating for that family.

Yeah, it's, I think the biggest memory for me is just them remembering that mom and I were there for pretty much everything, right?

Like that we were present, that we were there, you know, obviously did lots of excursions and you know, it's always nice when you're looking through photos and the boys are, oh, I remember doing that and I remember this. And you know, even with moving and packing and stuff, you come across old memories and whatnot and it, they, they go back to that time.

So, yeah, I love the memories that I have with my family and my kids.

Okay, so. And there's always someone doing a study on this and a study on that.

But when it comes to making those positive memories, there's some pos things that happen to our mental well being as well, and it points towards us being happy in life. And does that make sense to you?

Yeah, absolutely. And I think if you go about life just living and enjoying it, not with the purpose of making a memory, it'll come across a lot more genuine.

Well, you know how sometimes we're like you, you, I'll just call it an impromptu situation occurs and the best memory comes out of it.

And it might be a simple, okay, we're going to go for a hike one day and next thing you know, we, we come, you know, Pristine Lake and we all go for a swim in it and we just have a great time. And then of course, remember cousin Louis ended up with that big sunburn you want to put on those sunscreens, that kind of spray.

Still a memory, right? Still somewhat positive. But you know, you can laugh about it. But yeah, it's those ones where you just casually, okay, let's go do this.

And yeah, you're, you're talking about it decades later.

And Jeanette and I were talking about maybe taking the grandsons to Disneyland, Disney World. And you, you talk about a memory. And I don't know about you, but every Sunday I would have watched Disney oh on cbc.

That's all there was to watch, all there was for bed.

So I remember years ago when I was actually the, the first time I, I, I, I enjoyed going to Disney World and it was just like I was like a little kid again. Right. Talk about bringing back those memories. And you're nothing but, nothing but happy.

And if you can live in that time and to your point, like, truly enjoy it while you're there, not think of, I'm not supposed to be Enjoying this as much. I'm an older guy. You know what I mean? It's. If you are in the moment and you're truly enjoying it, then that's what you can be.

The biggest kid on earth.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

My wife still calls me a child to this day, so I'm okay.

You take that as a compliment.

I do, yes. Young at heart. Yeah, that's it.

But, but getting back to, like, my, my point really is that when we, we talk about legacy, because a lot of people have trouble with that, like, why am I on this planet?

And if it, if it's one to, to have those memories you can enjoy and share with the people you love, it's teaching them the importance of making those memories, too. And getting back to the point where this is why you were here. We're in the. Yes.

Because let's say 10 years down the road, let's say you, you go to a higher place, your family's going to have some fond memories of you, and you're going to keep on living. And you want to make sure that keeps going on and on and on.

And we're not, we're not talking about, let's say, whether you've made a million dollars or whatever it is. It doesn't really matter.

I don' about that. They really don't. Yeah. It's the time spent and it's the things you do with them that matter.

It's funny, I hear you talk about memories.

I can think back when I was a kid, my dad, when we were in Ottawa, he was working, I think, at the Mint, the Canadian Mint, one day and I was there on a field trip and he flipped me 50 cents to get Steve. And not from the m. Come on. Not from the Mint. It was out of his pond.

Right? Right.

Yes, yes. That didn't sound.

It did not. But I get it. I get it.

The ice cream tasted real, for sure.

The minted brand new coin just.

Well, you had to test them. Yeah, exactly.

Exactly.

But who, who tells you or who teaches you the. The importance of these memories? That's what I want to know.

I don't know if it's taught.

It's just, you know, if you remember things like you just said from your childhood, it makes you, you know, I think, feel good and have those and then you just inherently want your family to have the same thing. I don't know if you, you know, you try for memories, but like I said, you just maybe try and do more things which create the memory.

I want to be clear about this. This, the, the point of you being on this planet is make as many positive memories as you can.

That doesn't mean there's going to be negative, negative ones that come a long way because that's just life. Right? But it's. You focus on the positive. Right? Always.

And even if there are negatives, there's sometimes there's good learnings and takeaways and you know, you can use those to your benefit too.

Used to be, and I think you kind of mentioned it a few minutes ago that you would have this photo album and every once in a while you pull out the photo album and you'd start taking that trip down green lane. Whether it's the baby photos, whether it's the vacation photos, whether it's the birthday.

Party photos or my youth and my birthday parties and yais my things.

And do you have black and white photos?

Coke for sure. Kind of got em both.

So one of the things I'm, I'm just, I was kind of wondering as I was putting this together was, is that those photographs, they were, they were, I'd say, intimate with the whole memory process. Now how often do people take pictures nowadays?

They take them all the time, but then they just end up in digital world.

And I have this conversation with my sons quite a bit because I have two older sons from my first marriage and they were part of the hard copy picture era and you can almost see where that stopped. And then the younger two are all part of the digital era.

So where, where I'm going with this, like, I don't, I don't know if the value of that actual photo is the same when it comes to that, that whole, a positive memory process as it, as it used to be.

And, and, and as I, as the listeners do know, we do extensive research when we're, we're getting ready to do these podcasts and the research tells us that the average 20 photos a day.

20.

20 photos a day.

Wow. Mine's usually just looking at menus because it's too dark and I can't read the font. But different than the kids these days, but 20 a day. Wow.

20 a day.

Mind you, these kids all have their. And I wonder because they're always Snapchatting each other and all that stuff that comes with pictures, but not much.

The selfies.

Yeah.

And yeah, that's the one thing that I'm not a big fan of is on social media in this digital era is that stuff like Snapchat and stories that you're posting, they go away. Really. You might have best picture. And then it runs for however long and then it's gone.

So the memory's gone, too.

Yeah, yeah. So it's like, I. I get it, but I just. I think a lot of memories are probably going to be wasted because they're not stored or revisited.

So my point with that. And technology is not always our friend. Correct. In this case, if we had those. Those. I'll say those. Those pictures that.

That kind of reminded us of that. That positive, fun time we had as a family. Maybe just go down and print it and put it or put it in an album. Yeah.

And then you can maybe years later sit down and. But, you know, the funny thing about that, when we used to get her. And I'm really going to date myself.

Where you actually had to put film in a camera.

Yeah.

And then you'd actually get four copies of each. And then for one reason, I don't know. Right. Because the. It made the memory stronger. Right.

Yeah. Yeah.

And that was always the excitement of opening up that package that had the pictures in it because, you know, there was no proof, so you couldn't see it on a screen before you snapped it and hoped for the best.

Yeah.

And then it was like, oh, this is a good picture. Oh, okay. Oh, that's terrible. You know, but. But yeah, I definitely, you know, and there's, I think, happy mediums for my wife's mom. We bought her a.

A digital photo frame and loaded it with.

Yeah.

Recurring memories, which is great.

But if there was ever a massage, massive, you know, electrical snafu and just shorted everything, all those digital memories everywhere would be lost.

It's like it never happened.

Yeah. And that's. That's sad.

So, again, my point is, like, the photographs of the past were, I think, more valuable as far as making those memories stay alive. And I'm thinking that just be careful because if they do disappear, then there's a lot.

Not only that, because, again, getting back that whole 20 pics a day, and I do have, I don't know, probably about 100, 300 photos in my phone.

And I'll flip through them every now and then, but there's only a few of them that are really kind of glued to any kind of memory that I really care about.

Yeah. Like family events and whatnot. And. Yeah.

And, you know, to your point, like, I know my mom was very big on making photo albums and, you know, putting dates and all that sort of stuff in them.

And, you know, she had them through the 70s and early 80s and I still have the tote at home every once in a while, usually once a year, if I come across it, I'll pop it open. And then if those weren't in there, I would have forgotten and not remembered most of them.

And, and let's, let's state the obvious. That's our family history.

Yes, absolutely.

I don't know if I want my family history to be flying around the cloud. It's a frig. But that's where it is right now. Yep. Where it is. But crazy question. How much, how much money does it cost to make a memory?

Nothing.

Nothing.

Nope. You could just do something funny. Go to a field. You go to a park. Like, it does not cost money to make a memory.

And I understand that you understand that.

I just wish all the listeners understood that, because truly, if it means going down to the river and watching someone fish or throw the rod in the water yourself, that's. That's making a memory at no cost. Right. So. So what are some of the positive things that happen to us as individuals when we focus on creating memory?

I think there's.

You get feelings of accomplishment or achievement, because obviously, if you're remembering strongly and you know about that time, I'm sure the rest of the people that were that shared that time with you felt that same way. Yeah. I don't know what your. What do you. What are your thoughts?

Yeah, I'm. I'm thinking the same. Same thing. But again, like, you just did it because you, like, that's what your mom and dad did.

You realize that the, the positive value to it. And then how, really, when.

When I, when I put it in the context of this is your legacy, how important it is to make sure you somehow, as a family and whether it be like the family that you have in your house, extended family, you get together. And I remember when I was a kid, got together at my grandmother's place, and there must have been about, like, 20 cousins there.

And like, there's some memories there that just happened naturally. And that's what, that's what you want to see. Right.

And I was the opposite. I hadn't really had my brother, and I didn't really have aunts and uncles. So it was a.

And I always saw people with big families having these, you know, big dinners and big things and stuff. And I knew that was something that I wanted to do.

So with having four boys, I've kind of created that line of memories that I always was hoping for, so.

And always a negative memory, because I remember that for some reason, the the holidays where we had those, let's say, great big dinners, it was always my turn that they do do the dishes.

Yeah. And as a kid, you got to stay there till everybody's done. And then when the coffee comes out, it's like, oh, come on.

And we didn't have a dishwasher.

Yeah. The good thing I wasn't trusted with the china. So it was. I got out of that.

Yeah. So you, you've kind of already kind of answered this question in a. I'm going to ask it anyhow.

So how often actually do you pull out those, those photos and, and, and look at them? I, I know you just, you just in the finished a move, so I'm sure there was a couple of times where you were kind of engaged in that during the move.

Yeah. We have four totes full of pictures. Just. There's loose ones. There's. I've got three that I'm actually going to get printed into.

You know, large, 24 by 36 kind of poster board type thing, because they just, they're full family shots and they, they mean a lot. So. But yeah, no, I would say those pictures at least twice a year. Twice a year, sure. Yeah. But I like, I like it. It just gives you.

And do you do this by yourself?

Yeah. And if somebody walks in, it's like, hey, check this out, and whatever.

And then it turns into like an hour thing where there's, you know, a couple of us just going through it and whatnot.

But it's kind of funny. You created a memory with a memory.

Exactly.

Kind of a nice thing. Right. So when we're looking at these memories, I think at the end of the day, what it does is it reinforces the fact that we should never take these.

A memory or making memories or creating memories or somehow experience memories for granted. Because, I mean, again, getting back to this is why we're here, to enjoy life and share with people.

I don't think that can be under, Underestimated, under said or whatever.

No. And it's a time. It's got time attached to it. Right. Like, time does not stop for anybody.

So, you know, do those things that are going to leave that long standing feel good impression on you by making those memories with your family?

Oh, can, can you just say that again?

I don't think so, because that was great.

Yeah. And then how do we teach people the importance of creating these memories?

I don't know if you can. Yeah, that's a, That's a good one. I don't know. Because if you don't.

Let's say somebody just maybe didn't grew up and didn't have a lot of positive memories, then maybe that is impeding them from wanting to do positive ones. I don't know. I really don't know.

Yeah. Okay.

Well, if I could challenge listeners to somehow figure out how you can make positive memories, keeping in mind what we talked about a few moments ago. It doesn't cost a thing to make a memory.

So I have memories of being up on the ski hill with Josh and Jeanette and we've been to four great Cups in Vancouver. We've been fortunate enough to do that as a family.

And there's been some kind of crazy things that happen during those, I'll call them events, but those are all the memories. And yeah, I must have spent probably about a year helping to plan that. But once you kick it into motion, you have no idea what's going to.

Oh, yeah, you just along for the ride. And one of my favorite funny memories with, we were in Banff and we went up south for mountain gondola.

And Maxwell, I think he was probably about 10 or 12 at the time, was scared to death of, you know, you're only like a telephone pole high at any point, but, you know, going up a mountain, it seems. And he was hugging me and holding onto my arm and freaking out like he wasn't crying, but we were all kind of joking.

And then now he's this firefighter that's been hanging out of helicopters and, you know, towering these big things. So then it's always a, hey, do you remember the sulfur mountain? Yes, I do.

I was younger.

It wasn't, you know, but you could always, you know, rely on, on memories like that to, you know, to contribute to their lives. And.

That'S funny quote about making memories. And I've got about 10 of them. I'm just going to throw them out here. Feedback if you want. If not, let's go on to the next.

The most beautiful things in life are not things. They are moments and memories that we keep close to our hearts forever.

Thousand percent agree.

When you had nothing to remember, life becomes meaningless.

That's pretty sad.

It is sad, isn't it? Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened.

That's a tough one. That's easier said than done.

Okay, this comes from Dr. Seuss.

God.

That God, Sam. I am.

Yeah.

So live in the moment. Write it down later.

It's the way to go, right?

Or take a selfie. The best things in life are the people we love, the places we've been and the memories we've made along the way.

Agree. And that doesn't have to have a value, a monetary value to it.

Not at all. Sometimes you will never know the true value of a moment until it becomes a memory.

Agreement.

The best way to predict the future is to create it. That's Peter Drucker. In the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years.

Oh, you're getting deep.

That was Abraham Lincoln.

Okay, well, fair. He's still deep.

And we know what happened to him.

Yeah. Yeah. Not a great memory.

Memories are the diary we carry with us.

Yep. I agree.

Hospital. And you probably remember listening to this music A couple of times, but. Yes. That means their episode has come to an end. Mad Dog.

The memories.

Remember. Memories strengthen our sense of identity and purpose. In a way, our memories define who we are to ourselves. They are our internal autobiography.

The story of me and what I've done with my life. Also, memories tell us who we were connected to and why. And thereby to help bond our relationships.

Very nice.

You owe it to the people you care for to make as many memories you can and to teach them to do the same thing. I agree.

Fully.

Remember to take advantage of the moment before the moment takes advantage of you. To learn more about Ewalkabout, please Visit us at eWalkabout.

Cat Sam.